Guild Wars 2

Anet I can’t believe you expect people to read and pay attention to this [insert vaguely derogatory plant term here]‘s dialogue instead of skipping all of it and jumping on the baseless “he stole all my credit” bandwagon. Please immediately change Trahearne’s model so he is wearing a big neon sign around his neck that says “THANK YOU COMMANDER PLAYERNAME YOU’RE THE BEST!” Also from level 59 onward make him cling to the player’s face like a karka hatchling so they can always see it. You should be ashamed of yourselves for not doing this from the start.

If someone blinds him when he’s doing the crystal prison attack (right after he sidesteps then raises his right arm), they won’t hit anyone. Not sure if that’s working as intended, but it may be why you don’t see them at all.

^Yeah, same. People seem to focus on the “I’ve decided to call it Fort Trinity” line, while completely forgetting all the times the NPCs (Trahearne included) tell you how awesome you are. He makes it very clear that he considers you a friend and appreciates your help.

At what point does Trahearne sprout a little villain mustache and begin to twirl it while cackling about how he’s going to steal all the credit for everything his lackeys do? I’ve done every path of the post-50 story at least once, and I don’t remember it ever happening. I remember quite a few times when he responded to praise with a humble "thank you" or redirected it to the player/Pact saying that we accomplished something together, though. I also don’t understand how he comes off as mean or condescending, unless you’ve somehow managed to bug out your story so it repeats the mesmer clone quest at every step. He requests your advice, confides in you, calls you a good friend, pretty much does everything short of hitting on you (he may even have been attempting that with his "star-crossed lovers" comment :P).

It is not Trahearne’s story any more than it is the white stag’s, Malyck’s, Tybalt’s, the quaggans’, or whoever else you met previously (who, to me, felt like a bigger focus of their respective arcs than Trahearne did in the Zhaitan parts). In every case it is still your story of how you dealt with the issues surrounding those characters. Ultimately, you grow and move on to a bigger goal, and Trahearne partners up with you because his goal is similar. You motivate him to get off his kitten and help him complete his Wyld Hunt, you kill the dragon, and although the NPCs give him some praise, they also praise you.

I don’t think Trahearne’s implementation is perfect, but hating him for things he doesn’t do, or for doing the same things other story characters do, seems pretty absurd.

Perhaps to avoid triggering more surprises like that one, since they only happen after you’ve done certain parts of the story? I suppose they could be frustrating if you don’t expect them, especially the Harathi one since iirc it’s a veteran with a few adds, although you can just run away from them.

My only issue with these personal dynamic events is that they’ll trigger with other players nearby, possibly spoiling the story for them if they haven’t done those quests yet. Other than that, I think they’re a cool addition to the game.

Lots of NPCs have goofy AI and fall over repeatedly in combat. It doesn’t mean they’ve really died. Story-wise, everyone survived and worked together to kill the wraith. And Trahearne, rather than glory-hogging as people like to accuse him of doing, actually does give everyone involved (including the PC) credit for it.

It would be nice if story NPC AI was improved though, so the story and what actually happens in combat match up a bit better.

http://youtu.be/0P8ZKX40qlw?t=18m37s

He corrects the charr by saying “The Pact did it. Our combined efforts made this happen.” Your character is part of the Pact.

Amaranda shows up in the “Where Life Goes…” quest chain. To meet her, you have to choose Trahearne’s path when you get the choice of his or Caithe’s. I think he mentions that Amaranda is a secondborn in one of his conversation options.

I like to think she’s just pretending to wield a chainsaw and making the noises with her mouth.

Yes, I just did this quest and had the same issue. Not sure if it matters, but my character is also a sylvari.

NPC: Well done, Marshal Trahearne. You did it.
Trahearne: The Pact did it. Our combined efforts made this happen.

Trahearne: We will cleanse Orr together, as we were meant to do.

Trahearne: I know you’re probably tired of hearing this - especially from me - but thank you, Commander.

...Yeah, what a self-centered, glory hogging jerk he is. Being annoyed with other NPCs for gushing over him is understandable, but accusing Trahearne of glory hogging is silly, when he is always very humble and quick to mention that stuff wouldn’t get done without the help of the PC/other NPCs. Regarding his claims that he named Fort Trinity or created a ritual - considering all the continuity issues in the story, it seems likely that these are just more examples of them, rather than the character intentionally stealing credit.

I also don’t agree with the complaint that the story is all about Trahearne. By that logic, I should complain that the first half of my story was all about a deer, Malyck, Tybalt, and some frogs, since they were the focus of each arc. But I see it as my story of how I helped people with their issues, and ultimately joined up with someone who had common, bigger goals. Trahearne helped me weaken the dragon that I needed to kill, I helped him accomplish what he’d been working towards his entire life, which made me feel pretty awesome. Like the OP, I didn’t feel overshadowed, I felt like his partner, and from his dialogue it’s clear that he felt the same way about my character.

I do think that his introduction at Claw Island is seriously lacking. As a sylvari you get to learn a bit more about him (still not enough, IMO), but every other race has no exposure to him before that point, and very little backstory mentioned, which is lame. I’d really like to see some conversation options added where he tells you more about himself and his history, and future story quests showing flashbacks of him befriending the Orders/mentors. I also agree that his development seems rushed. I would’ve preferred some of the scenarios others described, like him failing at first, but overcoming his issues and regaining the respect of the Orders, rather than just becoming the leader with very little resistance. The scholar-turned-fighter concept is cool and I like Trahearne anyway, but I would’ve liked him much more if more time had been spent developing him and connecting him to all five races.

TL;DR: Trahearne’s character has some development flaws that I hope can be somewhat fixed with future additions to the story and tweaks to the current content, but I still think the concept is interesting and likeable, and hardly worthy of the constant circle jerk of hatred thrown at him.

I think it’s just an unchangeable thing (never saw an option for it), meant to add a bit of color variation. It seems to act differently depending on hairstyle, too – one of my characters has blue hair that fades to green at the tips, but the fade color changes based on the chosen hair color. One of the other hairstyles always has brown tips though, regardless of hair color.

Hopefully never.

When will people stop making new threads about him instead of adding to the dozen or so that are already flooding this forum?

Edit: vvv Yeah I could, but I still have to sift through all these new threads popping up every day if I want to read about something other than Trahearne. I just don’t understand why any one topic needs a zillion threads.

His voice actor is British and sounds exactly like the character.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt8Ldrg1dE8

Anyway, I don’t understand all the seething hatred, either. I think the character concept is great, although I agree he really needed a better introduction and more of his backstory shown to everyone, not just Sylvari.

Yeah, that is Caithe’s face. There are a few NPCs with Trahearne’s face too, one wanders near the bank. Kinda irks me, to be honest. :|

I liked that speech, too. (Minor 72 quest spoiler) He does end up giving a similar speech at the start of "Temple of the Forgotten God," although it's not quite as inspiring as it doesn't include the parts about Zhaitan being afraid and such. :|

As a huge character design nerd, I’ve been curious about Trahearne’s appearance. I really like it, his dull color scheme and the blackened leaves on his face make him look blighted, which I think is perfect for someone who spends so much time in a dismal place like Orr. The fact that his colors were changed from beta (he had reddish hair and a bit more color in his armor) makes me wonder if that was the designer’s intention. I also love his weird forked nose, I don’t know what purpose it serves, but it makes him look completely adorable even more odd in a cool sort of way.

^
Not only that, but the compliments frequently come from him. I seriously don’t understand how he comes off as a pompous jerk to some people, when he is always asking for your opinions/advice and mentioning that he couldn’t have accomplished things without you. He’s nothing but nice to you throughout the whole story.

I unapologetically love Trahearne, and I enjoyed working with him to weaken the dragon that I was tasked with killing as part of my personal story. Just like I worked with other NPCs to solve problems in every previous step of my personal story. I’m also looking at the bigger picture - cleansing Orr was the first step to take down the first dragon. I assume that when we move on to other dragons, we’ll be introduced to more racially appropriate characters so people have more to complain about, like a Norn with a lifelong ambition to kill Jormag, for example.

And aside from his grievous offense of saying he named Fort Trinity, which I assume is more of a continuity error than him being malicious, I can’t remember a single time Trahearne took sole credit for something. He and the other NPCs always told me I did a great job, they couldn’t have done it without me, we’d do it together as we were meant to (that particular line made me want to give him a big and probably awkward hug), etc. Maybe they just liked me better.

That said, I do feel there are some issues - mainly that his introduction to non-Sylvari players is lackluster, and his performance in combat makes me wonder how he solos Orr on a regular basis. The latter could be easily fixed just by tweaking his AI, so he does something besides autoattack without you having to drag mobs into him. And the former, as others have suggested, add some conversation options during Claw Island (or the second arc for Sylvari) so he can tell you a bit about himself and his calling. Perhaps add a big dynamic event in Caledon Forest where you help him fight some risen. It might cause continuity wonkiness if it happens when he’s supposed to be elsewhere, but at least it would give everyone a chance to see him in action early on, without having to create a new personal story step.

Overall I think he’s an interesting character, and I hope he continues to play a big part in the story (a positive part - no killing off or corruption, please), but with the aforementioned issues fixed and his background expanded on more.